*** Catalogue will be made available again later in 2014 ***
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2014 NEWS

Artifact Records has been quiet for a while, but we're changing direction and expaning into tape arhiving and digitisation having aquired a number of Studer A80 taoe machines. We will continue to publish music and are also working on bith archive re-releases as well as brand new material.
2015 will see the launch of our new imprint with new realisations and performances of pieces by John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and some contemporary pieces by Sean Williams and others.

Artifact Records is the new home of Edinburgh based improvising ensemble Grey Area and The Monosynth Orchestra.
More details to follow...

OLD NEWS

Here's a last gasp release for the bitter end of 2009 - a weird and wonderful tribute to Williams S Burroughs in the last minutes of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Naked Lunch

by Lee Harris, River Styx and Sean Williams

Well, it's been over a year since the passing of our dear friend Nicky Flood and we miss him terribly. Every session with Nicky was an absolute pleasure and often included episodes of all of us rolling around paralysed by laughter, as well as frequent bursts of the most soulful trumpet and trombone playing imaginable.

Nicky was one of the most generous people I have ever met, the biggest gift he gave was his wonderful playing and we feel tremendously privileged to have been able to hear him play so often and to have captured some of that on record.

We are currently gathering together various Mystery School Ensemble tunes for release so that all of these recordings can be shared with the wider world.

Sean Williams has just finished an open air theatre production in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh, doing sound design for the final scene of a show written by Carol Anne Duffy with music by Dee Isaacs. Read review.

We had to deal with gale force winds, horizontal rain and ice on the cables while running a 5.1 system with live input from a string quartet, synths, laptop and witch wuth radio mic, as well as having 80 schoolkids and 40 musicians in the cast! It was enormously ambitious but wonderful.

The Monosynth Orchestra has been perfoming in Edinburgh at the Soundings Festival of Sonic Art. They performed a live version of Morton Subotnik's 1971 piece, Sidewinder with analogue synths during a diffusion concert curated by Sean Williams.

Sean Williams' new version of John Cage's 1958 "Fontana Mix" is due for mastering in the next few weeks. Definitely on the more contemplative side of things - dare we say ambient even? This is a surround sound composition for 2 fridges and will be available as a stereo mix in addition to a limied number of 5.1 DVD issues. Watch this space!

Just completed some wonderful recordings with Ptarmagin in Totnes. This is Drezz's new project and they are currently doing the festivals and getting all sorts of attention from all and sundry.

Now available on iTunes and in a strictly limited run of 100 CDs from Alchemy in Portobello Road!

River Styx hiphop remix of the Howard Marks and Lee Harris smoking classic "3 Men In A Boat" backed with a brand new track from Lee and River Styx called "Spiritual Kid" is available from most download sites. Artwork is by the great british graphic artist Bryan Talbot of Chester P Hackenbush, Brainstorm and 2000AD fame! Lee has been as busy as ever and is getting another counter-culture album together on his Arkadia label for release early this year. Check out his ever expanding archive here.

Well, the gig was a stormer with the completely unrehearsed Monosynth Orchestra performing in front of a backdrop of deep sea weird creatures and Sean and Dave smashing up a computer by hammering nails into it. Click here to watch "Computer Piece No. 1" The Amazing Rolo amazed us all and all the others were brilliant too.

At long last The Mama Matrix Most Mysterious by Nervasystem & Aether is finally available for download via all your favorite sites including iTunes. This was initially available on the wonderfully weird and massively sketchy Elektrik Orgasm label from Bristol.

If dubbed out jazzy mind mangling beats and savage psychedelia are your bag then you should get your mitts on this for instant challenging satisfaction.

Still waiting for news on the new San Francisco Essentials compilation and the Sony PSP music download promotion may be going ahead soon too so get your PSP out and get downloading our free music if you can find it! The Mystery School Ensemble's new album is getting nearer to release. We're still sorting out the artwork and mastering but once this is finished we will have a brand new CD ready. Hooray!

Slowly but surely all of our catalogue is being made available on iTunes, Napster, Real Networks and loads of other digital download sites in the coming weeks so if there's something that you want to get hold of please follow the links on the releases page and you too can be the proud owner of a lovely string of ones and noughts.The best bit is that you won't have to struggle with any cellophane, and the poor old postie won't have to break his back bringing you all your freshly purchased loot.